Dancing Queens
by Pyjamas
Summary: Taichi stupidly loses a bet, meaning he and Yamato have to compete in a dancing contest together. With so much closeness and physical contact, things are bound to get interesting. [Taito]
1. Courage

**Title: **Dancing Queens  
**Chapter title: **Courage  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own Digimon.  
**Notes: **I was trying so hard today to think of a title for this fic. At first, TK suggested 'Twinkletoes' (which I seriously considered at first). Then, after a bit of brainstorming, the genius came up with 'Dancing Queens' and I thought it was brilliant; thus, the name. I can tell I'm going to have a lot of fun writing this. Oh, and I hate pronouns.

* * *

"… I'm not sure whether this is embarrassing or whether I should be laughing." 

"I know just what you mean."

Yamato and Sora stood at a safe distance, observing the event with unsure expressions. They were making a vague attempt to look as inconspicuous as possible, and were failing. Sora stood boldly in the middle of the corridor, staring and not wanting to miss a second of it in case something vital happened. The blonde was faring slightly better by leaning casually against the wall and trying not to stare, although the glances he was making every few seconds were more than obvious.

Mimi, on the other hand, was finding the whole thing far too exciting to stand still. She paced repeatedly across the corridor behind Sora, occasionally stopping to stand beside her and bounce impatiently. After all, it had been mostly her idea in the first place; it was about time someone did something amusing. She'd been beginning to get bored. After pacing for a moment longer, she stopped, stamped her foot and bit her lip in irritation. Her gaze landed on the focus of her annoyance and she ran a hand through her hair. "Oh, what's taking him so long? I could have pulled three times by now!"

Clearly not wanting to miss anything, Sora leaned in Mimi's direction instead of turning to her. "Maybe he's trying to build it up? You know, get noticed before he goes in for the kill."

This excuse wasn't good enough for Mimi's liking. She began to pace again, not taking her eyes off Taichi. "What does he care if he gets noticed first?"

"I don't know," Sora shrugged, "maybe he's just that set on the two of us having no hair."

Mimi inwardly shuddered. The prospect of waking up bald the next morning was not one that she was looking forward to. She swore, if that happened, both Taichi and Yamato would be tied down and every single inch of their bodies would be waxed. True, that hadn't been part of the bet, but nothing was stopping her doing it anyway.

Yamato looked at his feet, ignoring the girls' commentary and began to wonder why he'd agreed to this in the first place. As much as he liked to think he was confident in Taichi's abilities, he wasn't. He was well aware that Taichi had all the superior graces of a pregnant rhinoceros and, especially when he was making as much of a scene as he was, the charm of a flatulent baboon. It would be a genuine surprise to him if his friend actually managed to pull this off, which was a rather worrying thought. The consequence he knew he'd have no choice but to endure if Taichi failed was not the most appealing of activities; he'd be a laughing stock as soon as everybody found out. Mimi and Sora would certainly make sure of that. Even if Taichi succeeded, the girls would without doubt come up with some kind of punishment for them. It was a lose-lose situation and, unfortunately, too late to back out.

* * *

_2 days prior…_

Yamato dumped his bag down on Taichi's lunch and sat down next to him in a huff. At first, no one said anything. To get on the wrong side of an angry Yamato was a really bad move, so it was necessary to tread carefully if you didn't want a fork in the side of your face. Jyou fidgeted and nervously cleared his throat, wanting to say something but not wanting to be the first to approach the matter. Luckily Taichi jumped to his rescue, eager to express his feelings about his squashed pizza.

"Who rattled your cage? You owe me lunch now, I hope you know."

The blonde leaned with his elbows on the table and his head in his hands. "Some guy just implied that I look like a girl."

Sora and Mimi looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Koushiro coughed uncertainly, and Jyou looked away, tugging at his collar.

Taichi simply blinked. "Well, you do."

It was one of those moments when Yamato wanted to rake his hands violently through his hair but couldn't because he'd spent so long styling it that morning, which made it all the more frustrating. "I don't look like a girl!" Pulling his bag away from Taichi's pizza and ignoring the attempts on Taichi's part both to salvage it and to make him feel bad about it, he fished out his own lunch and pouted as he began to eat it. Mimi couldn't help but giggle, and it earned her a glare.

"You really do look like a girl, Yamato." Taichi found this whole situation mildly entertaining. He'd always thought that his best friend had had a feminine look about him, but had figured that Yamato must have noticed it on his own. After all, Yamato was best known for his almost insane vanity; if he didn't think he looked impeccable, he wouldn't leave the house. It was as simple as that. Taichi would have thought that at some point Yamato must have felt at least a little bit insecure about his femininity, but apparently he hadn't even noticed it.

Yamato, feeling ganged-up on, seemed to drink the rest of his sandwich and shot a 'don't-say-anything-stupid' look over at Taichi. "How the hell do I?"

Taichi grinned and began to tick the things off on his fingers. "For starters, there's your hair. It looks awfully girly from every angle. And you've got your womanly eyes with obscenely long eyelashes-"

"You've got the figure of a girl too!" Sora interrupted with her mouth full of giant pretzel, trying not to let any spill out as she spoke. She too had already noticed Yamato's femaleness and didn't want to lose out on the opportunity to comment on it.

Mimi waved a forkful of salad around as she joyfully joined in. "Yeah, you've got lady hips!"

If looks could kill, Yamato's look would have massacred all three of them. Taichi in particular; no one was allowed to make comments like that about his hair. "Jyou, Koushiro! Tell them!"

"Well, uh…" Koushiro struggled for words, "Without meaning to offend you, I can't disagree. Your voice and face shape are the only things that, to an observer, would suggest otherwise."

"He's right Yamato, I'm sorry!" It seemed that Jyou felt an awkward sense of pity for the blonde. "But in our defence, you don't make any kind of effort at all to look like a guy! Especially when you've got a gig and you wear all that make-up."

Yamato slammed his hand on the table in despair and hung his head. "I don't wear make-up because I enjoy it! It's only for the shows! I style my hair so it looks _good_, not girly. My eyelashes aren't that long, and I _so_ do not have 'lady hips'! You're all talking rubbish! Has someone drugged your food or something?"

"Nothing's been drugged. We're stating widely known facts."

"I've never heard such absurd 'facts' in my life, Sora!"

She merely shrugged and took a sip of her drink. "Delude yourself all you want. Truth is that you look like a girl. Ask anyone you like, and you'll get the same answer."

"I do not."

Sensing Yamato was getting a bit sulky, Taichi took it upon himself as the best friend to change the direction of the conversation. "What exactly did the guy say to you, anyway? When he said you looked like one?"

Yamato picked at his fingernails, deliberately not looking at the brunette. "It was half what he said and half what he _did_ that bothered me."

Koushiro looked up from his lunch, vaguely intrigued, and the two girls paid noticeably more attention. Mimi was the one to ask. "What did he do?"

The reply was incoherent. Taichi had to lean as close to Yamato as he possibly could when a repetition was mumbled in order to pick up what was being said. His eyes widened, and he turned to the blonde with an expression of surprise, wanting confirmation and trying not to laugh. "You serious? What a pervert!"

Mimi was really beginning to lose her cool. She couldn't believe something so blatantly interesting was being kept from her, and she was certainly not the most patient of people. She wanted answers. "Tell us!"

Taichi looked around at the group, waiting for a response from his best friend. The eager faces were all around; Mimi looked as if she was about to burst from anticipation, Sora surely felt the same way and just didn't look it, Koushiro was making no effort to hide his interest and even Jyou was having difficulty keeping his eyes on his lunch. It was pretty funny (well, Taichi thought it was, anyway) that they were all so keen to get some entertainment from Yamato's ordeal. When no response came from the blonde, he took the matter into his own hands.

"He says the guy came up behind him, squeezed his arse and offered him a good time."

Hidden behind his hair and a blush of humiliation, Yamato was lucky that he could only hear the reactions of his friends and couldn't see them. At first, just for a moment, there was silence. Taichi, who could see, witnessed first Jyou looking very uncomfortable. He then noticed that Koushiro, who had stopped moving, was staring at him in disbelief. The girls exchanged wide-eyed expressions before turning to Taichi and Yamato expectantly, wanting verification. At the unspoken request, the brunette simply shrugged and the blonde did nothing because he wasn't looking at them. This was enough for Sora's mouth to drop open.

"Oh my God! I never thought you looked _that_ girly! It had occurred to me, yeah, but I never thought it was that bad. Did you do something different with your hair or wear anything that might have made you look more feminine?"

The muffled reply from behind the blonde hair was, "Don't be daft."

Taichi tried comforting Yamato by rubbing his back; and surprisingly it seemed to work. The blonde lifted his head, if only to cover it with his hands afterwards, and leaned on Taichi's shoulder. He couldn't believe he had so little self-control as to let out something so embarrassing. Jyou and Koushiro would forget about it before long, but he knew he'd never hear the end of it from Taichi and the girls. It was one of those things that would forever be rearing its ugly head during disagreements.

At least, he thought with a small sense of consolation, his brother wasn't there. Takeru would tease him about it more than Mimi and Sora put together, just because he'd be able to do it without being strangled.

Mimi broke the silence and addressed Yamato directly, having grown tired of the short pause. "What did you do?"

Briefly wondering why this was still the subject of the conversation, Yamato reluctantly hauled himself upright. He had been very comfortable on Taichi's shoulder, and was really wishing he'd just kept his mouth shut. "What?"

It was obvious that the blonde wanted to avoid the subject, but Mimi wasn't having any of it and repeated herself clearly. "What did you do?"

"After he said it?"

"And did it, yes."

Yamato began to twist his fingers together, wondering how he could answer and change the topic at the same time. "I just turned around and said 'you might swing that way, but I don't'."

She immediately looked disappointed. "Oh, what? No hot boy-on-boy action? I'm ashamed of you, Ishida Yamato. You're so boring."

Koushiro gave an amused glance and Sora giggled into her drink, while Yamato managed to look both displeased and entertained at the same time. "Nope, sorry. But let's be realistic; if I _was_ to turn into a homo, it wouldn't be for anybody as repulsive as he was."

Sora was next in line to butt in with a question. "Who would you turn gay for, then?"

All eyes swivelled to the singer, who looked like he was about to start stuttering. Taichi, deciding that his best friend had had enough embarrassment for a little while, figured he'd lighten the mood a little more and (quite literally) leapt to the rescue by throwing his arms around Yamato shoulders. "He's gay for me! Aren't you, Yama-chan?"

'Yama-chan' peered sceptically at the winning smile his best friend was currently sporting. "Yeah, you wish."

The reply didn't discourage the brunette; it simply made him hug tighter and grin wider. "That's not what you were saying in bed last night."

"Guys, please-" Jyou began to plead, only to be interrupted by Mimi.

"Now, hang on," she waved her fork in Yamato's face, who had difficulty moving backwards due to the boy attached to his shoulders, "I'm still unclear about this thing with you looking like a girl."

The blonde stopped trying to detach Taichi in favour of slamming his hand on the table in frustration. "Yes! So am I! I do not look like a girl!"

Ignoring this outburst, Koushiro shuffled and turned to Mimi. "What is there to be unclear about?"

"Well," she began, studying Yamato as if he was an object, "I know he looks like a girl. There's no doubt about it. But don't you think that if it was that bad, he'd have guys hitting on him all the time? It would have started ages ago instead of just now."

Blunt as ever, Koushiro glanced back at Yamato and replied, "That's true. It's possible they just didn't think he was attractive enough to flirt with."

"Wait a minute!" Yamato was already annoyed enough about his lack of masculinity being brought up again, combined with the fact that Taichi was still clinging to his shoulders and slurring comments about their apparent love life into his ear, without being called unattractive too. It would have been slightly more bearable if they had been joking, but unfortunately the blonde knew they were being serious. "This is where I draw the line. I can tolerate you guys thinking I look feminine and everything, fine. But now, not only do I look like a girl, but I look like an _ugly_ girl? Have you all gone completely blind? By no stretch of the imagination am I ugly!"

"I think you'd make a really fit girl."

The speaker, Taichi, managed about six seconds of keeping a straight face before bursting into a fit of giggles. Needless to say, Yamato was not amused.

"If anyone's like a girl," he retorted, "it's you. Listen to yourself, tittering away. Men don't giggle."

When Taichi's laughter subsided, he let go of his friend and stretched his arms in the air. "Hey, I was being serious. I'd bone you so hard if you were a girl." He brought his arms down and gave Yamato a confident look. "And we all know I'd make a much better female than you would, anyway. I mean, just look at this natural charm!"

As Taichi flung his hair in all directions, attempting to mimic the models in adverts, Jyou shook his head. This was exasperating. "I've gotta disagree with you there, Taichi. You make a terrible girl."

"I concur," Koushiro added as he raised his hand.

"You're both lying, and you know it," Taichi stated decisively. "I make a better girl than Mimi does, sometimes."

Inevitably, this time it was the brunette who found himself on the wrong end of Mimi's fork. "I take offence to that!" she wailed, "Are you trying to imply that I look like a man? You make it sound as if I don't wash and constantly stink of BO, like you do!"

It was Taichi's turn to look offended. "Where'd you get the idea that I don't wash? I wash all the time; I live in my bathroom! And I do not stink of BO!" His tone then turned comical and he added, swaying his hair again, "This is the new fragrance for men."

"It's revolting."

Sora passed the remainder of her giant pretzel to Koushiro, who gratefully accepted it. He was a big fan of giant pretzels, so Sora had promised to share hers whenever she had them. She watched briefly as he devoured it before turning to interrupt the glaring contest between Taichi and Mimi. "It really does smell of BO, Tai."

"They're right," Koushiro agreed, happy with the pretzel and therefore not caring whether he made Taichi mad, "You smell like you haven't showered for a month."

Taichi himself was looking more and more annoyed with each comment that was made. Remembering how Taichi had called him a girl, Yamato smirked and nudged him with his elbow, wanting to add the icing to the cake. "Only girls wear fragrances, anyway."

At first, the brunette opted to sulk, but after realising what his best friend had said he sat up straight with a grin of triumph on his face. "See? I do make a decent girl! Better than _Mimi,_" he mock glared at her, "at any rate."

Once again, Mimi was infuriated. "Girls don't stink of BO like you do! I refuse to believe that you make a better girl than me; it's absolutely inconceivable! I pride myself on being more feminine than Marilyn Monroe! My dead, rotting corpse would be more feminine than you!"

"Poppycock!" Taichi stood up suddenly, standing his ground even though he was well aware from past experiences like this that getting into this sort of argument with Mimi was like trying to flog a dead horse. "I'm a better girl than you, and everyone here knows it!"

Mimi, standing up also, stared down at each of her friends in turn, daring them to agree with Taichi. Jyou and Koushiro wisely, albeit suspiciously, avoided her gaze. To suggest that Mimi was more of a man than Taichi would certainly not be a clever thing to do, but they both knew better than to disagree with Taichi when he was too riled up to sit still; he could easily have made both of their lives hell if he really felt the need.

When she came to Yamato, he didn't look away; he simply smiled at her, and then turned to look teasingly up at his best friend. "At least you're more of a girl than I am."

Taichi scoffed at him. "You be quiet, lady hips!" He then turned back to Mimi and pointed at her defiantly, _way_ too into the squabble to back out now. "I get more straight men hitting on me than Yamato does, so how come he's a girl and I'm not?"

"That doesn't make you feminine! Men _swarm_ over me!"

"I'd get twice as many men as you if I looked the part!"

"That's the biggest lie I ever heard!"

"It is not! In fact, not a single man in the entire world would be able to resist me!"

"I can name quite a few!"

Noticing that the quarrel was close to the point of no return and that now Mimi and Taichi were inches away from each other, trying to stare each other down, Jyou resolved that it was his duty to try and calm them down before they did any damage or started throwing food at each other. "Come on you two, don't argue. Tai, you know you can't compete with Mimi and win when it comes to stuff like this. Just let it go."

His attempt worked on Mimi, at least. She sat back down calmly, a smug look on her face and a gleam of victory in her eyes. It served, however, only to make Taichi more irate. He sat down also and Yamato gave him a wary glance. Knowing the kinds of things that Taichi tended to get them both into when he was feeling competitive, he thought it best to be on his guard.

"Ok…" the brunette started slowly, raising his eyes to look at Mimi again. "I know how we can settle this."

By then, Mimi had gone back to what was left of her salad and was only half listening. "It's already settled, Tai. You heard what Jyou said. I win."

"Jyou's just afraid that you'll eat him or something if he disagrees with you," Taichi waved his hand dismissively. "Just listen. I will prove to you that I am perfectly capable of and girly enough to pull a straight guy."

"Taichi," Yamato warned, not liking the sound of where this was going, "Leave it alone. You're only going to end up making an arse out of yourself."

"No I won't; don't you have any faith in me? You're a crap best friend. Anyway, I'll prove that I can pull a straight guy. And when I do, you and Sora are going to shave your heads."

Sora opened her mouth with every intention of protesting, but unfortunately Mimi got there first, paying full attention again. "Gladly. But let's be realistic, shall we? When you fail, you and Yamato are going to enter the dancing contest as partners."

"Hang on a second-" Yamato was interrupted by Taichi, who raised his eyebrow.

"What dancing contest?"

"That one."

Taichi and Yamato both turned around to see what she was pointing at. Stuck to the wall they saw a large, crudely drawn poster advertising nothing other than an in-school dancing contest.

If the brunette was at all nervous, it wasn't showing. "Sounds like we've got a deal."

"Wait!" Yamato waved his arms in the air, frantically trying to get their attention. He wasn't going to try and get out of it, because he knew they'd only draw him back in again. But a _dancing contest? _They must have been having a laugh. "Mimi, I really do agree that Taichi needs to learn that he doesn't have a vagina and everything. Let me ask you a question, though; have you ever wondered why I sing in my band and I don't dance? It's because I can't dance and because I don't like dancing. At least choose a different punishment? We both know that Taichi doesn't have a chance at winning this little competition you've got going."

She looked as if she might grant the blonde some mercy and reconsider, but Taichi, offended by Yamato's lack of belief in him, protested. "Hey! No messing with the terms. We," he gestured to himself and Mimi, "both accepted, so now there's no going back."

Yamato looked helplessly at Sora, who had some protesting of her own to do. "I know Taichi isn't very likely to win, but I don't want to agree to shave my head on the off-chance that he does win. You might be prepared to take such a risk, Mimi, but I'm not."

"Well, like Tai said, the terms have been set," Mimi stated. Sensing her friend's displeasure, she eagerly offered reassurance. "Don't worry about it though. There's no way he'll win. He can hardly pull a girl, let alone a guy."

Taichi started, "That's so not true-"

"Oh!" interrupted Mimi, who had remembered something important, "You say you can pull any straight guy in the world if you make yourself look like a girl, Tai?"

"Damn right, I can." He nodded assertively.

"Then I choose. You make yourself look like a girl, I point a guy of my choice out, and you pull him. No second chances. Does that sound good?"

"Fine by me. If I say I can pull any guy I want, then I can pull any guy I want!"

Amused by Taichi's confidence, Koushiro traded glances with Jyou. The doctor-to-be was looking fairly ill as a result of the bickering taking place next to him. He and Koushiro both knew full well that, by the time all of it was over, they would likely be consoling two boys who were being forced to dance. In all honesty neither of them could picture Taichi making a convincing enough girl to get a date with a guy. It was virtually impossible. The whole event was bound to be mortifying, and Jyou promised himself right there and then that he would not be present when Taichi made his debut as a female.

Yamato leaned his head on the table, still not entirely sure why he had been dragged into the bet. He supposed he had been the one who had brought the subject of femininity up in the first place, but he was convinced that the entire disagreement had been Taichi's fault. Poor Sora, too; even though it had been nothing to do with her, if Taichi managed to win she'd be forced to go bald. In fact, the blonde couldn't picture either of the girls without hair. It was a laughable but unfortunate concept. He thought of his own hair, and decided that he was probably on the better end of the deal.

Knowing he couldn't get out of it, all he could do was watch as Taichi and Mimi looked at each other, and Taichi rested his elbows on the table with a cocky grin. "So, when do we do this?"

* * *

_And back to the present..._

Taichi's hair, due to the girls styling it to make it look less manly, looked well-groomed and well-kept. He twirled a lock around his finger, glancing over at the guy he was supposed to pull before closing his locker loudly.

The other three watched as the brunette smoothed down his short, black skirt and slowly swaggered over, making sure he was swaying his hips with each step he took. He was doing alright so far, which worried Sora a little; while Mimi was certain he could fail, the other girl was not quite as convinced. Taichi was doing a good job of keeping the guy around, that was for sure. He just seemed to be hovering by the lockers, not really doing anything but not leaving either, which signalled to Sora that he must have thought Taichi was attractive.

Yamato was watching him too now, and he had to admit that Taichi looked rather fetching after all the work the girls had done on him. He was dressed in Mimi's clothes (it had taken a lot of persuasion, as Mimi had been convinced that he'd rip them); the previously mentioned short, black skirt which was fitted to cling to the curves on a girl's body, a black tube top (with a _very_ padded strapless bra) and black heels which belonged to Sora because all of Mimi's shoes were too small to fit him. His legs had been shaved, his fingernails had been cleaned and his face had dolled up with all manner of powders and glosses. Yamato would have gone so far as to say that if he'd never met Taichi before, it'd take him a while to figure out which gender he was.

The girls had stopped commenting in favour of watching the outcome with full attention. All possible consequences aside, it was pretty funny, and they were both curious as to how the boy would react when Taichi finally made his move. Mimi, with Sora's help, had picked this particular guy on purpose; not only was he homophobic, but he didn't like Taichi very much either. She was relying on him realising that the familiar girl walking up to him was, in fact, a guy. She was sure it wouldn't take him long to figure it out; she'd deliberately not covered up a bit of facial hair.

After what seemed like an hours wait, Taichi stopped in front of the boy and, hands resting on his hips, said something to him. The three of them strained to hear him, but he was talking too quietly; Yamato really did hope that Taichi wasn't embarrassing himself. It would be bad news for both of them. In the same way, Mimi and Sora hope that Taichi _was_ embarrassing himself. Neither of them had any particular desire to go bald.

And for one heart-stopping moment, Mimi saw the boy falling for the charade in front of him. This was it; Tai had been right. She bid farewell to her hair and was about to go crouch in a corner and cry when she heard a loud outburst of, "Stupid fag!"

By the time she looked up, the boy was walking away laughing and Taichi was bent over, cradling his jaw in his hands. Mimi rejoiced; obviously the facial hair had paid off. Sora was trying to giggle subtly as she thought it might be a bit harsh to laugh.

Yamato just held his head in his hands. Everything had looked so promising for a second; Taichi had gotten the guy's attention and done the hypnotising, girly walk. He must have used one of the most ridiculous chat-up lines in the book, or forgotten to make his voice higher or something. And now not only was Taichi going to have a huge bruise on his jaw from the homophobic punch and a deflated ego, but both of them were going to be subjected to the humiliation that came with competing in a dancing contest.

Sora and Mimi high-fived as Taichi joined them again, looking rather disgruntled. "Well…it could have gone worse."

"I'm glad it didn't though," Mimi smiled, "I really didn't want to be bald."

"I meant worse for _me_! He might've broken my nose instead."

"He didn't though, did he?"

"No, but I'm only saying he might have."

Yamato sighed and felt an arm wrap round his shoulders; when he looked up he saw Sora looking at him, relieved but sympathetic. "Good luck, Yamato. I'm sure you'll be fine."

"I don't know," he replied, dreading the thought of the competition, "Taichi's got two left feet. It's going to be hell."


	2. Friendship

**Chapter title: **Friendship  
**Disclaimer: **I don't own Digimon.  
**Notes: **I've been granted so many plot bunnies recently, I don't know how to handle them all. It's slowing everything down, so I apologise. Although, while I'm on the subject, does anyone have any unusual pairings that they want to see more of? I can't decide which ones to use, and I want to try some things which are a little bit different. One last thing, then I swear I'm done: I apologise most sincerely for my lack of knowledge about dancing. I've even tried to research it and have come up with nothing helpful. So if in doubt, just pretend they're doing something really cool.

* * *

Taichi grudgingly scribbled both his and Yamato's names on the entry form, the girls hovering over his shoulder and buzzing with excitement. Since the embarrassingly unsuccessful incident with the homophobe, he'd changed back sloppily into his uniform and given Mimi back her clothes, although his make-up was still visible a mile off and his hair was far from its usual gravity-defying state. He wasn't sure what the girls had done to it or how many products they'd used, but there seemed to be nothing he could do to get rid of the silky, smooth way it fell around his face and over the back of his neck. Roughly, he rubbed at his scalp again with his free hand; he much preferred his hair when it was up in the air. 

"There," he grumbled, setting the pen back down on the table. "It's done. Happy now?" He himself was not happy. Sora and Mimi had practically dragged him straight to the entry form as soon as he acknowledged the fact that he'd lost, making sure that he went through with his end of the deal. They hadn't even let him make himself look more presentable first, aside from making him change his clothes at Mimi's insistence.

"Yes, thank you!" Sora bounced up and down happily. She was still relieved that Taichi hadn't surprised them all and pulled it off. When she noticed just how displeased the brunette looked, she stopped bouncing and giggled at his sour expression. "Oh, don't be such a sore loser. You should be celebrating; you get to dance with the hottest guy in school in front of everybody and making them all jealous!"

Taichi was not convinced, but decided to suck it up anyway. He'd lost, and that was that. In his defence though, he had made an effort to have a second go; the nerdy guy they'd walked past had oozed desperation, and would surely have taken him up on his offer of a date. Unfortunately, the girls weren't having any of it and pulled him on his way before he could do anything about it.

He shot a glance over at Yamato and would have winked at him if he'd been looking. The blonde had trailed miserably behind the three of them in a sulk, wondering how his day could possibly get any worse, and was currently still sulking a few metres away. He couldn't believe it; first he'd been hit on as a girl, then his 'friends' had told him that yes, he did in fact look like a woman. Now Taichi had dragged him into yet another bet that he had nothing to do with and lost, thus subjecting him to utter mortification for the next few weeks at the very least.

The only way, he concluded, that his day could _possibly_ get any worse would be if Jun showed up with a daft excuse and insisted that he took her out. He supposed he should be thankful that it was only Taichi and not Jun that he was going to be dancing with, really. He couldn't even imagine how completely terrible that would be. Shuddering at the thought, he looked up and caught his best friend's eye.

Well, as much of a best friend as he could be considered at that point in time.

The brunette noticed Yamato's look of disdain towards him but ignored it. It wasn't like he was the only one who was going to have to do this, after all. He raised his hands in a half shrug, half peace offering and grinned. "What do you say? Feel like making all your fangirls jealous?" An evil idea crossed his mind, all thoughts of a truce forgotten, and after a short pause he added, "We could invite Jun to watch us. That'd be a laugh."

Unsure whether the fear that Taichi might actually do it or the anger at the very suggestion was more prominent in Yamato's mind, Sora jumped in before the blonde could shut his best friend's head in the door. "I think you two trying to dance will be entertaining enough, Tai. Spare Yamato at least a bit of dignity."

The statement rid Yamato of all thoughts of Jun and brought forth in his mind once again how humiliating this entire competition was going to be. He slid down the wall to sit on the floor, holding his head in his hands. "My whole reputation is about to go down the drain…" Then he was struck with an idea; he spoke it out slowly, thinking it through at the same time. "Wait a minute…we wouldn't have to make much of an effort, right? That wasn't part of the deal. All we _had _to do was enter; there was nothing about trying to win. If we could tweak it so we dance first, then get booted out for being so terrible, we'd only have to dance once. And because we were first, hardly anyone would remember it anyway. It'd be forgotten quickly, so the embarrassment would be minimal. That'd work…wouldn't it?"

He looked over at Taichi, waiting for confirmation. Mimi wanted so badly to intervene. She wanted to call the singer a boring coward and tell him that it'd be no fun if he didn't try to win. She might even have offered him a cookie or something if he made an effort. But, if she was honest, it was her fault that he had to do this at all. Actually, she thought, scrap that; it was Taichi's fault that Yamato had to join in. Even so, she'd feel a bit bad making Yamato do more than was necessary. She could handle making a fool out of Taichi because he'd get over it quickly, but the blonde would be sore about it for ages.

She turned to Taichi too, wondering what he'd have to say about the idea. Fortunately for her, he didn't look too impressed. "We can't do that!" He began to flail his arms wildly in the air, "We're doing this whether we want to or not! The least we can do is make an effort. Wouldn't you rather win and be ridiculed than _lose_ and be ridiculed? I know I would."

"We won't be ridiculed if they forget we were even there!" Yamato's hands balled into fists at his sides.

Taichi took a step closer. "We'll be praised if we win! And we'd get a prize! I refuse to go about this badly. Don't you think it'd be cool to win a dancing competition when neither of us dances?"

"That's exactly my point! We can't dance for toffee! Whether we make an effort or not, we'll be booed off the stage. I will _not_ be booed off a stage, Taichi. Never in a million years, will I."

"Well…" the brunette held his chin between his finger and thumb for a moment while he thought, before clicking his fingers, "we could learn! Join some dancing classes or something."

All three of the others stared at him in disbelief, and Yamato blinked a few times. "Say _what?_"

"I said dance classes!" Taichi was beaming; this was the best idea he'd had in weeks as far as he was concerned. "We could join some, and they'd teach us. Then we won't look like complete morons when we compete."

Yamato could tell that Taichi was getting far too wrapped up in his idea, and that if he didn't do something quickly the brunette would sign them up anyway. He grasped his friend by the shoulders and shook him roughly. "Have you gone mad? Think of the humiliation, Tai! The news that we were taking dancing classes would spread like wildfire, and we'd be subjected to a never-ending onslaught of abuse! Besides, it's not like they're free. They'd cost us both a fortune."

"You're the one who's gone mad! You can't make up your mind; you don't want people to make fun of you, but when I suggest something to prevent it, you refuse! What do you think we should do, then? Come on, ideas please!"

Mimi and Sora watched the two bicker with amusement and a little bit of pity. The girl with pink hair in particular was feeling sorry for them, especially Yamato. None of this was his fault. She tapped her foot a couple of times, wondering how she could help. She could find them the cheapest dancing classes possible, perhaps; they'd both appreciate that. Then a better idea came to her mind, and she waved her arms in the air to get the arguing pair's attention.

"Excuse me, excuse me! I could teach you both to dance!"

Taichi and Yamato froze briefly before turning to her. Neither of them said a word, so she happily continued. "I could! I wouldn't make you pay anything, and you wouldn't have to worry about people teasing you because you could say it was all in the name of fun!"

They both looked sceptical, and Sora broke in. "I didn't know you danced, Mimi."

"Of course I do!" She put her hands on her hips proudly. "I had lessons for two years when I was a child."

Taichi began to look interested but Yamato, still unconvinced, sent her a doubtful glance. "Is your dancing anything like your singing?"

"I'd say I'm just as good at both of them. Although, my singing lessons were for three years, so obviously I'll be a bit better at that."

The blonde turned to Taichi, his mind made up. "Let's take the professional lessons. Where did you have in mind?"

"Hey!" Mimi yelled before Taichi had a chance to reply, "Are you saying that I sing badly?"

"No. I'm saying you can't sing at all."

"You're horrible, Ishida!" The brunette broke free of Yamato's hold on his shoulders and moved to Mimi's side. "So what if she can't sing? She's not offering to teach us to sing."

"She just said her dancing was _worse_ than her singing!"

"She can't be that bad if she's had lessons!" Taichi retorted. "What're you complaining about anyway? It's the perfect solution; it's free and you won't get made fun of."

Folding his arms tightly across his chest, the blonde sighed. "Fine, fine. You can teach us, Mimi. Just nothing that'll make us look stupid, ok?"

Sora raised an eyebrow as Taichi and Mimi began to bounce with joy at the idea being accepted. This could end up being very interesting.

* * *

_After school…_

At Mimi's insistence, the first lesson went underway that same day. She was only too eager to express how pleased she was that they were letting her help them, and she wanted to show off her dancing skills; especially to Yamato. He was going to regret saying that she couldn't dance, that much she was certain of.

The hall was, of course, empty, due to the rest of the school going home half an hour ago. Hardly anybody was around the building at all, actually; only a few of the staff and the select few students who had detention that afternoon. Mimi had decided that the hall would be the best place for the lessons to be due to all the space. Three bags and pairs of shoes had been sloppily thrown by the stage, and it hadn't taken long for three school blazers to join them. Activities, Mimi found, usually worked best without shoes or blazers.

Also, because it was getting towards summer, the three of them had soon found themselves becoming too hot to be comfortable.

"Can we have a break?" Taichi whined, his arms slumping at his sides, "I'm exhausted."

"Me too," the blonde added before collapsing onto the floor. His face was tinged with pink from the heat, and his hands and feet were sweaty and clammy from all the movement. He didn't need this; he had things like science he could be catching up with.

"What? Another one?" Mimi tugged lightly at her hair and moaned in despair. She had had no idea that offering to teach her two friends would be such a hardship. "How many breaks have you had now? We've only been going for half an hour. I'm keeping track of the time, and trust me; we _will_ be doing an hour of dancing, excluding breaks. So the more breaks you want to have, the longer we're going to be here."

Taichi dropped himself next to Yamato and leaned against his shoulder. "I know _that_. But have mercy on us, please! We've never danced before. All this stepping and twirling and swaying could give anyone a headache."

"I feel as if my legs could fall off," Yamato agreed. "I wish I could just die here, right now. Then I wouldn't have to worry about losing limbs or dying of dehydration."

Mimi stamped her foot on the hard floor. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Will you two babies listen to yourselves? Really; Taichi, with the amount of sport you do I refuse to believe that you're exhausted after a half an hour session of dancing with four breaks so far! And you, Yamato; you're always jumping around all over the place at your gigs! You can't even say that you're tired because you're hot, because the stages you play on must be ten times hotter than this room is right now!"

Leaning his head on top of Taichi's, the blonde squeezed his eyes shut and groaned. "But I'm _thirsty_, and I'm _bored_-"

"If you're thirsty, there's some water left in my bag that you can have."

He slowly began to drag himself away, and Taichi looked up at Mimi with big, pleading eyes. "Can I have some too?"

"Yeah, share it."

The brunette's face lit up with a grin, and as he made a frantic dash for the stage Mimi could tell that he hadn't really been thirsty. She watched with a strange kind of fond annoyance as he fought his best friend for the bottle, clearly wanting to get the first drink, and sighed. Perhaps she hadn't quite thought it through enough before she made the offer to help; they were going to be a handful. Like trying to make five year olds sit still.

Well, she figured, best not waste the break they'd forced into the session. She sat on the floor and, folding her warms, watched them as they squabbled and finished her water. How could she make this less boring for them? She should have known in advance that they simply were not going to be interested in this if they didn't have some kind of incentive to make the effort. The excuse could always be made that the contest itself should have been their motivation, but Mimi knew the two boys better than that. It was like exams; they knew they should prepare for them, but the fact that they were actually going to happen would only kick in the day before they happened, and by then it was too late to do anything but hope that Lady Luck would be kind to them.

And Mimi was certain that Yamato would be highly pissed off if he ended up having to rely on that particular Lady again, especially in a situation like this.

So, the problem came with making the whole practice less boring for them. What could she possibly do? Dancing was dancing; as far as she was concerned, there was no way that it could be jazzed up any more. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and pondered, what had they done so far today? It was a frustrating moment when she realised that she had only showed them how to carry themselves a little bit more elegantly. But there hadn't been time to do anything else yet, what with all the breaks that the boys (Taichi in particular) had been demanding. Besides, they'd really needed instruction on their graces; they'd clomped around heavily like apes before. And their postures had really needed work.

Maybe what they needed to do was get hands on with each other? They were going to have to dance together anyway, so she might as well just throw them in at the deep end. At least it would stop them being bored for a while, and anything was worth a shot. She stood up suddenly with this new idea and clapped her hands repeatedly, wanting their attention and only stopping when both of them had wearily turned to face her. Smiling brightly, she spoke. "Up you get, break's over. You've had your drinks, now it's time to get dancing! Come on, on your feet. Chop, chop."

She was obviously eager for them to get going. Then again, Yamato mused as he begrudgingly got to his feet, she'd been very eager about this whole thing from the start. He and Taichi wearily obeyed as she ushered them to the places she wanted them to be standing.

It didn't take long for both of them to realise that they were standing close enough together to be invading one another's personal space. To make it just that little bit worse, they were facing each other. Taichi, being the slightly shorter of the two, could feel his best friend's breath on his face. It wasn't all that pleasant, he decided after a slight, worrying hesitation, due to the amount of sweat he could also smell radiating in his direction. Sweat never had been the most attractive scent.

Instead of focusing on that particular aspect of his friend, he looked up at him. Courtesy of the close proximity, he could distinctly make out the heated blush staining his cheeks. It swept most ungracefully across the bridge of his nose, becoming more pronounced under his eyes and continuing to run all the way to the tips of his ears, which were displaying a vivid red colour. If he weren't so hot himself, he'd have probably jeered at him and made a few mocking comments about how the colour of his fact contrasted harshly with the colour of his hair.

Then there was the matter of his eyes; if anything, they stood out even more now that Yamato's face had darkened in shade. They didn't stand out in brightness, however, only in colour. Blue never had complemented red, really, as far as Taichi was concerned. The heat had also lent them a hazy, overcast appearance, making the blonde look almost feverish.

Taichi was certain he didn't look much more attractive himself, nor did he smell it. On the contrary; he could smell his own sweat along with that of the young man in front of him. Definitely not the most appealing thing in the world. That meant also that, were anyone looking closely enough, they'd probably be able to see sweat leaking through his shirt. Nice.

He reached up to wipe yet more of the wretched stuff from his face, grimly noting the slight remnants of make-up that came away on his hand, and momentarily hoped that Yamato wouldn't notice just how gross he actually was right then.

Fortunately for him, Yamato was far too occupied with a few problems of his own to care about Taichi's moment of slight self-consciousness. In fact, he had gone beyond the boundaries of self-consciousness and into the realm of simply not caring any more. He knew that he stank and that his face was changing colour like a kaleidoscope. But it was just too stuffy and too hot for him to make much of a complaint. Besides, there was no point in kicking up a fuss over something this impossible to change, especially when Mimi was the one in charge. He also knew that his sweat must have been visible, at least from where Taichi was standing.

Therein lay a problem; however unwilling he was at the particular moment to express it, it always had made him a little uneasy when Taichi saw him in a state such as this one. He wasn't entirely sure why. He just knew that he wasn't comfortable with Taichi staring at him when he was aware that he didn't look as good as he would have liked to. It was even worse when he knew he looked particularly below standard, and his best friend was standing close enough to be able to see every single imperfection.

And then there was the almost unbearable heat, which was the cause for both of the prior difficulties he was faced with. He swore he was highly likely to pass out if Mimi asked him to do anything too physically demanding. Walking was only just still within his capabilities, after all.

He and Taichi had both been too preoccupied to notice Mimi first looking them over in an unhappy manner, and then advancing towards them waving her hands about. She had to speak before they properly remembered that she was even there. "No, no, that's not right. Stand closer."

Taichi was the one to break the locked gaze he was sharing with Yamato and send an exasperated look at Mimi. "How much closer could we possibly get?"

The answer was an action rather than speech; she put each of her hands on their backs and firmly pushed them together. They stumbled at first, not quite prepared for something like that, before finding their feet and balancing themselves. They were chest-to-chest now, forced to look at each other for the sole reason that they didn't have room to look anywhere else. Someone paying very close attention might have noticed Yamato's blush deepening a little at this contact, but it went unseen by the other two occupants of the room as Taichi immediately began to laugh, and the blonde quickly followed suit.

Mimi did nothing but stand and look less than amused with her arms folded, wondering what was so funny. In all honesty, their ability to laugh at anything and everything could get pretty tedious at times; particularly at times like this when they had important things like dancing to be getting on with. She sighed quietly and, while she waited patiently for them to finish, reached back to tie her hair up and out of her way. She had to admit, it was rather hot in that stuffy hall, and her hair constantly falling into her face wasn't helping the matter at all. When she was satisfied that her hair looked fantastic while still being secure enough not to fall out of place, she folded her arms again and tapped her foot lightly on the floor.

The laughter eventually began to subside and Yamato took a step back, clearly not comfortable with the invasion of his personal space which Mimi had forced upon him but at the same time staying close enough to avoid provoking her to push them together again. What was the matter with him? He didn't usually have a problem with physical contact, especially not with Taichi; after all, he was his best friend. They were bound to conflict physically _sometimes_. God knew they'd touched each other in the most unspeakable places before, although granted that it was usually very hard and with a fist during a particularly nasty disagreement. Even so, it had never bothered him before. It must have been the heat making him over-sensitive.

He looked up, still stifling giggles, at the unimpressed Mimi.

"And what is so funny?" Her expression was unchanging. It made Yamato's laughter return with full force, so Taichi had to calm down enough to step in with an answer.

"It's just…the way you shoved us. It was funny."

She pinched the bridge of her nose and inhaled sharply. "I should have known you two would be immature about this. Now listen. You can't prance about having a laugh for the whole duration of these lessons because you'll end up with nothing to do when it comes to the actual contest. And wasn't the whole point of me helping you with this that you didn't want to end up standing there in front of everyone like a couple of idiots?"

This harsh reminder of reality quickly brought Yamato down from his laughing high, but it was clearly going to take a little more to stop Taichi. He was suppressing his amusement fairly well, but the other two could tell that it was still there from the way his shoulders quivered every few seconds. It eventually became too much for Yamato to bear, so he used the lack of distance between them to his advantage and jabbed the brunette sharply in the ribs. "Mimi's right. We can't just mess about. We've got to do this properly."

This seemed to curb Taichi's glee just enough for him to retort without laughing. "Well, maybe we'd be able to do it properly if she'd tell us what she wants us to do instead of just moving us about however she pleases."

Mimi appeared to take this as a warped kind of apology and smiled. "I was trying to help you. You've got to learn how to stay balanced and focused when you're so close together before I can teach you to actually _do_ anything, because you two fall over your own feet sometimes. It wouldn't look very impressive if you tripped over each other's feet on stage, would it?"

Taichi mumbled in agreement while Yamato nodded and wiped some sweat from the bridge of his nose.

"I'm glad you're beginning to see the light." She gestured for them to move together again, but this time didn't physically push them. "If you please?"

It took a moment for them to gather enough will to move, and when they did their tiny steps were reluctant. Yamato's in particular; he was feeling quite uncomfortable being this close to Taichi for so long in this insufferable temperature. He didn't know how much longer he was going to be able to survive for, and it made him wonder what on earth was going on. Of course he blamed the heat for the awkwardness. Who wouldn't? It was just making him a little edgy, that was all. What if he thought the same way when he didn't feel like he was in an oven? He didn't know what he was going to do.

His body hit Taichi's for the second time and they both paused, not quite sure what Mimi wanted them to do. Fortunately, she stepped in to help them, making sure they were close enough for their toes to be less than an inch apart.

"Now, then," she began, taking Taichi's hand and manoeuvring him like a puppet until he was comfortably holding the blonde's shoulder, ignorant to the slightly uneasy expression which crossed his face on the contact. "It doesn't really matter how you're positioned today as long as you get the general idea of what you're supposed to do, so this will do because it's easy. The lack of details isn't going to stop you learning how to balance yourselves properly. Yamato, darling, I need your hand too."

He had moved his hand behind his back and out of the way, wanting to avoid the inevitable for as long as he possibly could. A glance at the clock told him that he still had ages of the practice left, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to avoid holding Taichi for that long. He mentally cursed; damn the heat to hell! He knew for a fact that he wouldn't be having this much trouble if it wasn't for the wretched temperature and stuffy atmosphere.

Mimi held her hand out to Yamato impatiently, and Taichi stifled another laugh. He was finding it pretty amusing that his best friend was suffering so blatantly. He'd usually care, but this time he was suffering because of the heat too so he didn't see any reason to try and make him feel any better about it. The way the blonde was getting so worked up about this dancing lark was amusing also; although, Taichi had to wonder why he was making such a fuss about touching him. Was he really sweating that much? He hoped not. He'd never liked being able to see sweat soaking through people's clothes, much less the idea of having to touch it. He supposed he could kind of see where Yamato was coming from.

It was a little insulting even so.

Still, after a bit of hassle and struggling, Mimi managed to coax Yamato out of hiding and planted his hand firmly on Taichi's waist. Only when she was completely sure that neither of them would move, she scurried round to the other side of them to join their free hands together. It was like playing with life size dolls.

She stepped back to admire her handiwork, and couldn't hold back the grin that fought its way onto her face at such a sight. "That's wonderful; just as I had pictured. Now, when I say a direction, I want both of you to take one step in that direction. Ok?"

They nodded, both a little preoccupied with the unfamiliar arrangement they were in.

"Alright. Towards me."

This first instruction was fairly successful; Yamato stepped a little faster and further than Taichi did, but both in the same direction and neither of them stumbled. At least, Mimi was pleased with them. She clasped her hands together with pride as she issued the next instruction. "Away from me."

They stepped back again, a little more in time with each other than they had been on the first attempt. Yamato was surprised he was managing this at all; he could feel both his palms growing sticky and clammy around his best friend's waist and in his hand. He just hoped Taichi was concentrating too hard on where to put his feet to notice.

"Towards the stage."

The third try didn't work quite as well as the first two had. Taichi, indeed concentrating too hard on his feet, didn't realise Yamato was a little slow realising which direction was 'towards the stage'. This resulted in Taichi standing on the blonde's feet and getting tangled up in his legs when the blonde in question yelped in surprise and tried to back away. Consequently they both toppled onto the floor, Yamato falling backwards and Taichi landing on top of him with a soft thud.

He rolled off quickly so as not to hurt him any more than he already had done and sprung to his feet, almost falling the other way due to the speed at which he stood up. Yamato wasn't quite so eager to move; he sat up slowly, and gingerly rubbed his backside. That had been quite painful. He was going to have a few bruises in the morning; there was no doubt about that. Only one option remained.

"I demand a break."

Mimi held her head in her hands and sighed. They had a long way to go, that was for sure.


End file.
